The protection of public life from cyberattacks is a national concern that can have dramatic effects on local communities. Because low-level cyber attacks such as ransomware are continuously on the rise, the goal of bolstering the defenses of community organizations across the entire country appears to be an impossible one to undertake.
But no one is facing this issue of expanding local and regional cyber security alone; across the country, communities are standing up to safeguard the institutions that uphold public life. [Cyber] defense is a challenge that affects everyone.
This first-ever Cyber Civil Defense Summit is being hosted by the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, which is thrilled to have the opportunity to bring together cyber defenders from a variety of fields to work toward a shared goal. The topic of this year’s Summit is Innovation, and one of its goals is to exhibit and evaluate new programs that are targeted at assisting community groups. These programs may include offering preventative services to strengthen resilience or reactive services to increase crisis response and recovery, for example.
The purpose of the Summit is to demonstrate regional cyber defense strategies that can be replicated by defenders, academics, volunteers, and public servants, and to bring these groups together.
